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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
Did you ever feel like you would loose it if one more thing went wrong? I know this will sound petty and that's why its so annoying to me. The big things I get why they annoy me but the little things seem to get me even more frustrated.I should say when its a bunch of little things it makes me want to throw things.
It has been an interesting year to say the least for me. I have some great things and some things that I can't believe I got through. And even this past month my mother lost three very good friends unexpectedly one just yesterday and one the day before,so I have been trying to be there for her. I have had financial issues as many have had this year and even had a heart attack (Yeah I am not supposed to be on the high risk list but someone forgot to tell that to my heart.)I managed to get through all that.
However, I am about to loose my mind over a fucking computer! I am pretty computer literate. Well I guess that would depend on who you ask. Everything being relative in reality I can get by but I actually have REAL experts in computers in my family.That's where my issue started I guess.I had a problem with my old computer about a year ago and really didn't have the patience to deal with it when I found out what it was and decided to let my EXPERTS fix it. Unfortunately they all have crazy schedules so I didn't get that fixed for months. I had an old laptop but it is very old and the wireless stopped working. So I got a new (TO ME) computer. For months I couldn't get the full use of the computer because some things needed to be done to it that I just didn't have the expertise to fix (I didn't have the dics to reformat it was the main issue).SO after months I get it fixed only to get the worst virus I have EVER come across.My son who is one of the experts talks me into switching to a Linux OS. I have always been told how great it is and decided I would never have to deal with viruses again so ok lets do it.
The problem was my son was also in the middle of opening a new business as well as having a part time business going and two jobs and going to college full time.SO he didn't have much time and when he did I didn't. He finally gets it done. I have it back ONE night and I hit the wireless button by mistake in the dark (Its right next to the power button)This now for some reason no one can figure out screwed up the computer and now I couldn't get the wireless turned back on. He didn't get to it for about two more weeks. He finally fixes it and loads a few things that he knows I use and I take it home.I have found that everything works with Linux WELL KIND OF! That's the real issue nothing works completely or correctly and no one supports Linux. I am used to fixing things myself and there is no way I can have him take two weeks to fix every little issue when I can fix it myself if it was a windows or Mac machine. UNFORTUNATELY its not a MAC so back to Windows I am going as soon as I can get him to sit down long enough to do it.I AM STARTING TO HATE COMPUTERS!!! I so need to hit the lottery and get a Mac.  By the way the icon that has the smiley guy happily typing at the computer just pisses me off!
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| May 24, 2011, 11:36 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
I can relate, but to no where near the magnitude of problems that you've had. On Sunday, I turned off my laptop, packed it up and went to the shop. Opened it up, powered it on and got an error message that Windows couldnt open because a file was missing or corrupt. Fortunately, I DID have the disc to reinstall Windows, so I figured that if I put it in, everything would be back to normal. I was wrong. Fortunately, a tekkie friend of mine was able to get on his computer and looked up everything on line that mine was doing to try to figure out a fix. After 2 hours of him feeding me instructions over the phone, we finally had it back up and running, but there was that thought in the back of my mind of how long would I be without it. You dont pay attention how much you rely on these damn things until they go down.
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| May 24, 2011, 11:53 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
OMFG I just placed an order on the phone because the website wasn't working right for something I was trying to order.As we are finishing up the women says to me "By the way we are having a great sale on computers today if your interested in a lap top" I thought I would loose it. I was relatively nice and said "PLEASE don't even mention computers to me today"
In your case Free I could have fixed it myself because I am pretty fluent in Windows issues. lol At worst I could have reformatted in a couple of hours.Could you imagine having to wait two weeks to get a setting changed because its like a foreign language to you.I hate that and can't handle that and having to work around things and have fixes for them. I just want it to work!
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| May 24, 2011, 12:12 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
QUOTE (newbie1011 @ May 24, 2011, 12:12)OMFG I just placed an order on the phone because the website wasn't working right for something I was trying to order.As we are finishing up the women says to me "By the way we are having a great sale on computers today if your interested in a lap top" I thought I would loose it. I was relatively nice and said "PLEASE don't even mention computers to me today"
In your case Free I could have fixed it myself because I am pretty fluent in Windows issues. lol At worst I could have reformatted in a couple of hours.Could you imagine having to wait two weeks to get a setting changed because its like a foreign language to you.I hate that and can't handle that and having to work around things and have fixes for them. I just want it to work!
What version of Linux did you try? Been really happy with ubuntu. I run it on several computers at my shop - It's ideal for on-line use. It can be loaded inside Windows so you can switch back and forth by rebooting. Windows is unfortunately the better OS for many applications due to the quality of software available - but on -line linux rocks!
I'm talking to you know via Linux - bet your couldn't tell 
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| May 24, 2011, 17:57 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
I am running ubunto.I have the newest bestest blah blah ....
I will agree the speed is great and no virus issues. All the things people love about it.. As I said it is the preferred OS by my experts (If you can't have a Mac) However the problem lies in the details.Because most company's do not support it and most things have to have plug in or some other tweak/ work around to run the programs properly there is where most of the problem is. I will give you an example. Xfinity is a program from Comcast that allows you to watch TV on your computer. It actually detected that I have Linux and said download this plugin and you are good to go. So I did. It seemed to work well EXCEPT (And there is always and exception) all the programming worked except the premium channels that I subscribe to and am able to watch on my other computers. The premium channels are broadcast(for lack of a better word) over the Internet in a different way than any of the other channels. First off trying to explain this to a bunch of low level techs that have no clue what Linux even is and don't understand how they are broadcast differently is bad enough. But after 9 people and several hours later I get the idiot who says "We don't support Linux There is no way that Xfinity will work at all on your computer". I wanted to climb through the phone and punch the guy. I couldn't make him understand that it did work except for the premium channels and that they offer a plugin and say that they support Linux on the site.
That is the big issue If this was windows I know enough about Windows as sucky as it is, that I can normally fix minor issues and even some more than minor issues. I know almost NOTHING about Linux so I can't fix things without possibly screwing up the entire thing. I never trust tech support people that have me change setting especially major stuff because they never seem to get it right. Then leave you with a totally fucked system and then say "we don't support that. I was just trying to help" and hang up.
A very annoying but small issue (Maybe you know the fix) is my email. I set it up and know all my settings. HOWEVER My outgoing mail server will not allow outgoing mail on the system as I would normally do it through Outlook for example. It has a message that I never heard of before and obviously has something to do with this OS.I CAN'T FIX THIS MYSELF! That would be something I could fix in 2 seconds on a windows machine.So if I want to send email I have to take my message that I want to respond to and cut and paste it to my Gmail account and compose my response in there which also now has a different email address than what people sent me an email so that confuses people. AGAIN I don't know how to change it in there because I never used my mail that way. I will go through my Gmail setting and at least see if I can set it to read its coming from a different address as I would do in outlook.In my outlook or any windows mail I just put the outgoing SMTP and ports and it was all good. NOT WITH THIS! I also knew how to forward all my email addresses to one account. That I seemed to have figured out but its the outgoing that's making me crazy.I can't wait to see what happens with Power point or photo shop when I try to use them.
Hey Jesse if you want to come over and give me a few lessons in Linux and fix everything I wouldn't mind.lol
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| May 24, 2011, 22:56 |
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GG317
60 / male
Bowl of Granola, Massachusetts, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
Don't fear the penguins...I use it too, since Windows XP could only crash and crash...Question, how did you come to download Ubuntu? Did you just overwrite it into your computer or did you wipe the hard drive before the download? I used an eraser program and completely erased any windows programing, before I downloaded my version (Lucid Lynx). By doing it this way, I ensured there wouldn't be any form of virus still lurking around somewhere or old windows programs waiting to make a mess out of the new system.
If your thinking of doing this, make a disc and back up photos and stuff you want to save when you can download a clean system package. If you save anything, try having them checked for virus content. I think I remember of two viruses that copy themselves into photo files and wait dormant for you to open them and relaunch them. If you don't have anyway of doing that, check the compression rate of your photos. One of them will be packing mucho' mega-bytes and could be your culprit.
Another idea for you is to check out the Ubuntu Forums. There you can create an account and surf through everyone else who has the same system as you and knows how to fix your Xnfinity problems. Most forums pages give step by step instructions. I use it now and then. It may be the problem of downloading, "WINE". Wine is a sudo-windows program, designed to allow the use of windows based software on Linux data-bases....
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| May 25, 2011, 00:36 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
GG Thank you for all you advice but I guess I need to clarify.
My system was completely cleaned and started as if it was a brand new computer. I have Wine installed and that's exactly how I got Xfinity to work. Keeper is another program that I am having issues with even though I have the plug in and they do support Linux.
The problem is I have to do that with everything and feel like I'm learning about computers all over again.To be honest part of me is a bit selfish and lazy these days. I have a pretty good knowledge of computers, at least Windows computers. I could fix almost anything I came across.
However now that my kids are older and my oldest is the computer science guy and my brothers are both experts in computers I got a bit lazy and said if its something big happens I can just let them handle it. Or if its real bad I would just reformat. I DON'T WANT TO LEARN THIS SHIT OR DEPEND ON PEOPLE FOR MINOR SHIT.I hate having to study forums for hour to get a simple thing to work as it is supposed to. I guess my patience is not what it used to be and It's not like I do it because I enjoy it like some people do. I do it because I want it to work right.
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| May 25, 2011, 03:34 |
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Grandelf
64 / male
Northern, Michigan, US
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Re: Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
QUOTE (newbie1011 @ May 25, 2011, 03:34)GG Thank you for all you advice but I guess I need to clarify.
My system was completely cleaned and started as if it was a brand new computer. I have Wine installed and that's exactly how I got Xfinity to work. Keeper is another program that I am having issues with even though I have the plug in and they do support Linux.
The problem is I have to do that with everything and feel like I'm learning about computers all over again.To be honest part of me is a bit selfish and lazy these days. I have a pretty good knowledge of computers, at least Windows computers. I could fix almost anything I came across.
However now that my kids are older and my oldest is the computer science guy and my brothers are both experts in computers I got a bit lazy and said if its something big happens I can just let them handle it. Or if its real bad I would just reformat. I DON'T WANT TO LEARN THIS SHIT OR DEPEND ON PEOPLE FOR MINOR SHIT.I hate having to study forums for hour to get a simple thing to work as it is supposed to. I guess my patience is not what it used to be and It's not like I do it because I enjoy it like some people do. I do it because I want it to work right.
As a tech once told me, for as smart as computers are supposed to be, their damn stupid. Oh and you certainly deserve a plaque or some award for the bestest ranting and raving! 
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| May 25, 2011, 05:05 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
I can go on a longer rant if you want lol
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| May 25, 2011, 06:08 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
E-mail is easy fix. Just use Mozilla Thunderbird - again a free program. It can be found on the applications menu top of the screen under Ubuntu Software Center. After installing you need to set it up to use all your existing mail servers POP and STMP and proper port settings can usally be found on the homepage for the various service providers. I use AOL for business mail so it a POP server POP.aol.com for in coming and SMTP.aol.com for outgoing. It takes some playing but in the end its worth it. There is a huge user group many people will help under SYSTEM Menu for Help Support. I'm far from an expert but I have stayed at a HolidayInn
As far as a clean install that is always going to happen when you load Linux over Windows as it is a completely new disc structure. If you load it into windows only a part of your disc will be reformatted to Linux's required structure
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| May 25, 2011, 16:22 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
I know its all set up properly and all that is "supposed" to be done is done.Its not that things weren't done right. Its that these specific programs I use are not designed to work with Linux. Therefore when you do the plug in or work around that is supposed to make it work it does but not quit as it is supposed to or not all the features. My son and I just talked about this a few minutes ago. He said I either have to use different programs or try to tweak the ones I use. The only other option is go back to windows. I think I will wind up going back to windows(ALTHOUGH WINDOWS SUCKS!!!!) There are just too many very specific programs I use that I use all the features too.If I am unable to do it without getting annoyed it does me no good. So I have to decide if I go to windows which version to deal with and then I also have to then deal with virus protection and what will work best because viruses are becoming a real nuisance.
Thanks for the tip on what email program you use (MOZILLA THUNDERBIRD) I was using one that was on here and didn't have great reviews. I am very aware how to set up my email and it is normally a very simple thing. AGAIN that is the issue nothing is easy with this. I had the settings in but it still wouldn't send my email properly and gave me an error message that I just didn't understand because I never heard the terminology before being it was a Linux based error.As for you using AOL mail I do have it but rarely use it and I am surprised you do. I know people that wont even except emails if they come from anyone using aol.
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| May 25, 2011, 20:32 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
Hahah - I've had AOL e-mail for so long I use to pay for it! I figure they owe me a few years of free usage! I also have Yahoo / AT&T and godaddy email accounts - nothing but the best for me
The linux lingo is kind of strange at first. Kinda of like Pig Latin I guess~
All in all I could never go back to Windows for on-line usage. Linux or Mac is so much safer as you know~
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| May 25, 2011, 21:03 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
I am still hoping the Mac gods will shine on me and grace me with a Mac Pro . lol
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| May 25, 2011, 21:11 |
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ashkats
65 / couple
crystal falls, Michigan, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
,my desktop computer i wanted to do a cleam reinstall of windows xp pro , think ya can pop that disk in tyhe drive a do what it says ha took me 3 weeks to get it back up and running again....turns out it was trying to boot off a cd player that was in it that didnt work and i dont use anyway .. had to pull it out and set think to boot from the hd again and use the laptop to print out 33 pages of reinstall windwows bs lol 
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| May 26, 2011, 00:13 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
First, to answer newbie.. Yes, computers were suppose to make life easier. We were also suppose to have 3 day work weeks and flying cars by now.
All of ya make me laugh. Linex? wtf is that, a mispelling of Linus? Is he missing his blanket?
I think ya'll brain washed. I've used nothing but Windows since my first puter in 2001. NO problems with the windows. online or not. If ya add something else to what ya got, ya got too much and you WILL have constant conflicts.
If you had or are having problems with XP, then I'd suggest you find someone that knows how to fix your puter.
All OS [except MAC]are designed after windows and the rest baased off microsoft stuff.
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| May 26, 2011, 00:55 |
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kamarel
60 / male
Alexandria, Louisiana, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
Newbs, this is all I got...
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| May 26, 2011, 01:05 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
That is NOT all you have! *Kisses*
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| May 26, 2011, 04:12 |
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User no longer registered.
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
No good Newbs...something isn't working all I can see is   
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| May 26, 2011, 12:07 |
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newbie1011
62 / female
The Shore, New Jersey, US
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Re: I need to rant!!!! I thought computers are suposed to make our lives easier.
LMAO I am so glad you're back to your usual self. I missed you.
I will let you in on a little secret.(OK Not so secret)There is a closet full of nice gadgets at Kam's.
So again I ask.What time should we pick you up at the airport?
I figure if I can't be on the computer I need something or someone to play with. lol
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| May 26, 2011, 13:47 |
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